MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA

Transcription

1 MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA BOARD OF SELECTMEN TOWN HALL Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts Telephone (978) FAX (978) MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN July 10, :30 p.m. Town Hall MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Boling, Vice Chairman Beckmann, Mr. Kehoe, Mr. Steinert & Mrs. Driscoll MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: Greg Federspiel, Town Administrator; Debi Morong, Executive Assistant; GUESTS: none PRESS: none At 6:31 pm, Chairman Boling called the open meeting to order noting that the meeting was being video / audio-taped by volunteers from Cape Ann T.V. and audio-taped by Debi Morong and asked that if anyone in the audience was taping the meeting, they should let the Board of Selectmen know. Moment of Silence: Jeffery Anthony; a commercial fisherman Citizens Open Forum: Christina Bane was present to make a noise complaint to the Board of Selectmen about the Manchester Bath & Tennis Club tennis pro. This is not the first time this complaint has come before the Board. The neighbors feel that nothing has changed even after meeting with the Board and the club manager last spring. Chairman Boling asks if anyone had contacted the Manchester Police Department? Since the town does not have a Noise Ordinance, the neighbors may need to have a meeting with the Bath & Tennis Club Managers and work it out amongst themselves. This is a civil matter and the Board of Selectmen does not have authority. One Day Liquor License Request: Misery Challenge Joshua Crosby was present to request a One Day Liquor License for the Annual Misery Challenge to be held at Tuck s Point in the Chowder House area. This event will be held from 9:30am until about 12:30pm and the vendor will only be giving samples of their products. Selectman Kehoe made the motion to approve the request for a one day license for the Misery Challenge and to limit the area of consumption to the Chowder House area by means of demarcation. Chairman Boling seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). Boards / Committee s Appointments & Updates BOARD OF REGISTRARS GARY GIUSTO (3 YR. TERM) CPC SUE THORNE; CHRISTOPHER WOODY KELLY (3 YR. TERM) HARBOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE CHRISTIAN DEL ROSARIO (3 YR. TERM) Board of Selectmen minutes Page 1

2 SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE TORY MORTON, SU-YIN MITTERMAIER, LINDA KAPLAN, FAITH EMERSON, MICHAEL EVEN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS LAURA TENNY; JIM DIEDRICH; ANDREW CROCKER DISCUSSION REGARDING OPEN SEAT ON THE PLANNING BOARD Selectman Kehoe makes a motion to re-appoint Gary Giusto, Sue Thorne, Woody Kelly & Christian Del Rosario to their respective boards and for terms indicated. Vice Chairman Beckmann seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). Harbor Advisory Committee Candidates Cristopher Combs grew up in town, but currently lives in Essex. He is a commercial fisherman and stays at his parent s home in Manchester frequently. His business is run from Manchester Harbor and would like to contribute to the upkeep. James Starkey is currently a member of the Dredging Committee and believes that the Harbor Advisory Committee and the Dredging Committee s should be combined into one. The HAC should be involved in the long term issues. It was mentioned by the Board to clarify if a member can live somewhere other than Manchester: According to the HAC Committee Membership Charge: Preference shall be given to up to two (2) members who are from the industries that make their living from or because of the Sea and are dependent upon a healthy and robust Harbor. There was no indication that a member had to live in town. Chairman Boling made a motion to appoint Chris Comb for a 3 year term to the HAC. Vice Chairman Beckmann seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) Laura Tenny lives at 86 Pine Street and has been a resident of Manchester for about 1 year. Mrs. Tenny would like to contribute to the high quality of life in Manchester by volunteering and was referred to the ZBA by a neighbor, Jim Diedrich who is a member. Mrs. Tenny works at MIT as a Landscape Architect and is able to make evening meetings. Has never participated in municipal work, but has attended several ZBA meetings to observe and would be willing to contribute in any capacity she would be helpful. Chairman Boling s concern on Mrs. Tenny becoming a full member is that she has not had enough time to get up to speed being so new to town. Chairman Boling makes a motion to appoint Laura Tenny to the Zoning Board of Appeals as the 2nd alternate member for a term of 1 year. Selectman Kehoe seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). Chairman Boling makes a motion to re-appoint James Diedrich as a full member for a 3 year term & Andrew Crocker as the 1st alternate for a 3 year term. Selectman Driscoll seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). Board of Selectmen minutes Page 2

3 Dog Disturbance Forest Street Gale Bacon who resides at 73 Forest Street has come before the Board of Selectmen regarding her neighbor who resides at 64 Forest Street who has approximately (according to her calculations) dogs and is running a kennel and now breeding Labradoodles out of his home. Mrs. Bacon claims that it is no longer a quiet neighborhood. There is currently no limit to the number of dogs allowed on a kennel license according to the Town Bylaw. Building Inspector & Animal Control Officer will look into see if the neighbor is indeed running a business. Animal Control Officer has periodically gone by and has never experienced a noise problem. Have neighbors gotten together to sign a letter? If not, write one and have the neighbors that are in agreement sign and send it to Animal Control Board. If you encounter the excessive barking, call the Animal Control Officer. Citizens Petition is required to start the process of changing the Town Bylaw regarding kennels. The Board of Selectmen will pass along all the information to the Animal Control Board and ask for their opinion on the kenneling bylaw and have them contact Mrs. Bacon along with other neighbors to get their account of what is happening in their neighborhood. DIP Committee Request Andy Harris, chairman of the DIP Committee was present to request that the Board of Selectmen cease construction/paving on Pine Street immediately. The committee believes that once Pine Street is repaved there will be little appetite to revisit the street to make it more bike and pedestrian friendly. They also believe that much of the new paving will have to be torn up in order to redo the street in keeping with the Complete Streets Design elements. Pine Street was part of a larger plan to re-do the water mains, which started about 3 years ago. They completed the Pine Street portion of that project, but needed the patching to settle for 1 year prior to re-paving. Residents that not only live on that street or off of it, but the many that travel it on a daily basis have been waiting for it to be re-paved. The sidewalks are not part of this project and will be addressed at a later date. The town is in the early stages of the Complete Streets Design and has many projects on the list. Determining which of the many ideas for improving bike and pedestrian access in and around the Village should be pursued. Pine Street is on the list, but it is too early to determine if it will be a priority and all projects need state approval. The complete streets project will focus primarily on bike lane stripping and wider sidewalks. The Board of Selectmen concluded that the paving would continue on Pine Street as planned, but the concerns of the DIP have not gone unnoticed and can be implemented in the future without the need to undo most of the current repaving work. Colburn Road Resident s Concerns Philip Comenos of 1 Dexter Lane was speaking on behalf of the residents of Colburn Road & Dexter Lane. The total amount of taxes paid per year by these residents is approximately $170,000. We as residents have paid out of pocket approximately $25,000 to fix problems that the town should be addressing. We brought our concerns to the Board of Selectmen back in 2014 and from that conversation; we received about 2 hours of work from the DPW. Some of our concerns from back then are the same today: Board of Selectmen minutes Page 3

4 1) Trim the growth (and keep it trimmed) along roadway safety issue. The DPW has done trimming in the past. The first part of the roadway up to Dexter Lane passes through lands under control of the Conservation Commission. The ConsCom must approve trimming along the land they control. 2) Repave upper and lower Colburn Road DPW has slated to patch/repave areas in the Fall of 2017; total repave in ) Limit commercial dog walkers The town does not have a bylaw stating how many dogs a commercial dog walker can walk (except on Singing Beach). It was suggested to the resident to submit a petition article for such a bylaw. Unfortunately, most of the trails in the area are on private land. The METC holds the conservation easement on the main parcel and could impose their own limits, although enforcement may be challenging. 4) Repair stone walls that have been damaged due to the many car accidents Unfortunately, these damages happened some time ago and it s too late to try and get insurance funds to repair them. The town has reached out to the Essex Technical School to see if there was any interest in doing the repairs, but it may be too big a project for them. The Board would like to concentrate on repairing the road, fix any structural issues and trim the growth on the sides of the roads where it is permissible. A CPC Representative was present and suggested that the residents apply for funds to repair the wall damaged by car accidents. The application deadline is December 1 st of each year. Correspondence Resident letter with a special request for a family friend Camilla Blair of 2 Burnham Lane is requesting a Beach Pass for a family friend who s child was diagnosed with cancer and is going through treatments that do not allow him to swim in pools or lakes because it may compromise his immune system. The mother of the child was raised in Manchester, but they do not live here now. It was suggested that the MPD could drive the family to the Beach and they could park their car behind Town Hall for the day, but this might not always work due to timing, personal may be busy or an emergency has called the staff out. Chairman Boling concluded that he would contact the Parks & Recreation Department to initiate and request that they move on this quickly to approve due to the few weeks of summer left before school starts up again. MBTA Monopoles Update The Wifi Tower Project has been placed on a 30 day hold while the Finance Management Control Board undergoes a review with staff of the project and the process. The next meeting of the Control Board is July 17 th at noon. There is growing concern from other towns about towers as more information is obtained. Andover is planning a summit in August where they hope to get a majority of the 60 communities impacted to attend. The Board of Selectmen is still hoping to have representatives from the MBTA attend a meeting in August to update us on the status of the project. No date has been set. Board of Selectmen minutes Page 4

5 Positive Train Control This work is now getting underway over the next three months of weekends. Rail service is curtailed the length of the Rockport Line with alternative bus service in place. Four 30 poles are planned for Manchester; at Boardman Avenue, Beach Street, Plum Hill & in the vicinity of Wedgewood. Consent Agenda ADA PROCLAMATION BOS MEETING MINUTES FINAL APPROVAL: LIQUOR LICENSE YGGBG, INC. D/B/A BRAVO BY-THE-SEA TRANSFER REQUESTS The ADA Proclamation was pulled from the consent agenda. Selectman Kehoe made a motion to take no action on the ADA Proclamation. Selectman Driscoll seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). Selectman Kehoe made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Vice Chairman Beckmann seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). Town Administrator s Report: Fiscal year changeover is wrapping up as we process the last of the FY2017 invoices. The new fiscal year is underway. The auditors have already completed their internal work of FY2017 and will be completing their work by the end of August. Harbormaster Office & Public Restrooms: As part of the repair work at Morss Pier, the engineering firm did a sketch of what a small harbormaster office and public restrooms would look like at the head of the pier. The renderings look very good. Grant money is available for about 40% of the cost. The pier work is less extensive than originally feared and should be covered by the Seaport Grant we received meaning the town could repurpose the CP funds towards this project if the voters approve. Monthly Newsletter: The first BOS Newsletter should go out the first week of August. The newsletter will be one page, both sides and it will steer people towards the Town Website for more information. If residents wish to receive the newsletter and other updates digitally, they can sign up for that. Town Hall Hours: With the start of the new fiscal year and the new clerical contract, staff will be taking half hour lunch breaks instead of an hour and will be working until 6:30pm on Thursdays instead of 8pm. The Building Inspector will shift his hours on Thursdays to 4:30-6:30pm. Town Treasurer/Collector: Jennifer Yaskell is up for re-appointment; her current three year term will be ending this month. Selectman Kehoe makes a motion to re-appoint Jennifer Yaskell as the town s Treasurer/Collector for a term of three years ( ). Chairman Boling seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). Board of Selectmen minutes Page 5

6 Vice Chairman Beckmann made a motion to appoint the following people to the Sustainability Committee with the terms listed: Tori Morton 3 year term ending June 30, 2020 Linda Kaplan 3 year term ending June 30, 2020 Faith Emerson 2 year term ending June 30, 2019 Michael Even 2 year term ending June 30, 2019 Su-Yin Mittermaier 1 year term ending June 30, 2018 Corey Meyer 1 year term ending June 30, 2018 Selectman Kehoe seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). At 9:36PM, Selectman Driscoll made a motion to adjourn. Selectman Kehoe seconded the motion and it was approved (5-0). Respectfully Submitted, Debi Morong Executive Assistant Documents Used: One Day Liquor License Request Misery Challenge Volunteer Applications from James Starkey & Christopher Comb for a seat on the HAC The Sustainability Committee Charge Volunteer Applications from Tory Morton, Faith Emerson, Michael Even, Linda Kaplan, Su-Yin Mittermaier & Corey Meyer for the Sustainability Committee Volunteer Application from Laura Tenny for a seat on the ZBA Resident complaint for Dog Nuisance on Forest Street DIP Committee memorandum Request to stop paving on Pine St. Resident letter dated Pine Street Paving Independent Living Center letter dated ADA Proclamation request Draft of BOS Meeting Minutes ABCC approval of YGGBG, Inc. (Bravo by-the-sea) new liquor license Request for Intra Departmental Transfers Resident request for Beach pass for family friend dated Comcast letter dated Channel lineup information and S&H Price change FY2017 Senior Tax Work-off Program Board of Selectmen minutes Page 6